MIND GAMES
There's a new player on the Promenade: a Ferengi shop-owner, Bokat. His Games Bazaar specializes in hard-to-find virtual reality computer games. He approaches Jake Sisko and Nog with a tempting offer to play a hot new game called The Zhodran Crystal Quest. No non-Zhodran player has ever won this game, but then, Jake and Nog have the best scores on all the other games at the Games Bazaar. And Bokat is willing to bet on their ability to win the game, and—as a result—win Bokat a lucrative business deal with the Zhodrans.
But soon, kids all over the station are falling into comas, their minds trapped in an ever-changing game. Suddenly, it’s up to Jake to go into the game and rescue them. If he wins, so does the Federation. If he loses, he’ll be trapped forever in a deadly game with a very real Borg!
Cover art by Alan Gutierrez
Interior Illustrations by Todd Cameron Hamilton
It was just an illusion taking place in his mind....
Something sharp stung his thigh. He swallowed a yelp of pain, scooted back onto dry ground, and rolled onto his side. A small creature that resembled a blue frog with a fin was attached to his leg by its teeth. It suddenly began to chomp with ravenous hunger.
The carnivorous little beast was trying to eat him! Jake grabbed the frog, yanked it off, and hurled it into the still water. Scrambling backward, Jake watched in horror as the water came alive. Thousands of Zhodran frogs rocketed into the air. They came in various shades of blue and green, and ranged in size from a couple of inches to over a foot long. The lake teemed with the creatures, and they all had snapping pointed teeth.
Jake was not going swimming.
He paused to consider the situation. The tools to accomplish the task had to be programmed into the game. Winning might be difficult, but not impossible. He just had to figure out how.
Rising to his feet, he strode boldly across the grass toward the dock.
The sentry did not react until Jake hit a strip of sand separating the grass from the water. “Halt and be assimilated,” the Borg said in a flat monotone.
“Resistance is futile.”
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For my son,
Jay R. Gallagher,
another winner
in the game of persistence
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
Cast of Characters
JAKE SISKO—Jake is a young teenager and the only human boy permanently on board Deep Space Nine. Jake’s mother died when he was very young. He came to the space station with his father but found very few kids his own age. He doesn’t remember life on Earth, but he loves baseball and candy bars, and he hates homework. His father doesn’t approve of his friendship with Nog.
NOG—He is a Ferengi boy whose primary goal in life—like all Ferengi—is to make money. His father, Rom, is frequently away on business, which is fine with Nog. His uncle, Quark, keeps an eye on him. Nog thinks humans are odd with their notions of trust and favors and friendship. He doesn’t always understand Jake, but since his father forbids him to hang out with the human boy, Nog and Jake are best friends. Nog loves to play tricks on people, but he tries to avoid Odo whenever possible.
COMMANDER BENJAMIN SISKO—Jake’s father has been appointed by Starfleet Command to oversee the operations of the space station and act as a liaison between the Federation and Bajor. His wife was killed in a Borg attack, and he is raising Jake by himself. He is a very busy man who always tries to make time for his son.
ODO—The security officer was found by Bajoran scientists years ago, but Odo has no idea where he originally came from. He is a shapeshifter, and thus can assume any shape for a period of time. He normally maintains a vaguely human appearance but every sixteen hours he must revert to his natural liquid state. He has no patience for lawbreakers and less for Ferengi.
MAJOR KIRA NERYS—Kira was a freedom fighter in the Bajoran underground during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. She now represents Bajoran interests aboard the station and is Sisko’s first officer. Her temper is legendary.
LIEUTENANT JADZIA DAX—An old friend of Commander Sisko’s, the science officer Dax is actually two joined entities known as the Trill. There is a separate consciousness—a symbiont—in the young female host’s body. Sisko knew the symbiont Dax in a previous host, which was a “he.”
DR. JULIAN BASHIR—Eager for adventure, Doctor Bashir graduated at the top of his class and requested a deep-space posting. His enthusiasm sometimes gets him into trouble.
MILES O’BRIEN—Formerly the Transporter Chief aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, O’Brien is now Chief of Operations on Deep Space Nine.
KEIKO O’BRIEN—Keiko was a botanist on the Enterprise, but she moved to the station with her husband and her young daughter, Molly. Since there is little use for her botany skills on the station, she is the teacher for all of the permanent and traveling students.
QUARK—Nog’s uncle and a Ferengi businessman by trade, Quark runs his own combination restaurant/casino/holosuite venue on the Promenade, the central meeting place for much of the activity on the station. Quark has his hand in every deal on board and usually manages to stay just one step ahead of the law—usually in the shape of Odo.
CHAPTER 1
Look out, Jake!” Nog screamed. “You’re targeted! She’s locked on!”
Jake did not answer the frantic voice in his helmet-headset. He throttled up and urged the atmospheric fighter into a steep ascent. If this maneuver didn’t work, he was dead.
“Fire, Tena Lin! Fire!” Rotor, a reptilian Selay boy, shouted encoura
gement to the Bajoran girl.
“I’m gonna get you this time, Jake Sisko!” Lin snarled.
Jake’s onboard computer sounded an alarm as a heat-seeking missile streaked from Lin’s armament pod. Jake kept his gaze on the control panel as he executed a reverse loop, leveled off, and rocketed under the enemy plane. Lin did not react in time. Her own missile streaked into her starboard engine, and the Bajoran’s fighter exploded in a burst of colored light and thunder.
“Yes!” Nog’s victory cry rang in Jake’s ears.
“Your response time was too slow, Tena Lin,” Rotor hissed. “A fighter pilot must be coiled to strike—”
“Stow it, snake-eyes,” Lin snapped.
Jake ignored them. Breathless and exhilarated, he cruised blue skies at supersonic speeds, then gasped in surprise as the cockpit vanished and the world suddenly went black.
“Not funny, Nog!” Jake slipped his hands out of flexible gloves and ripped off his helmet. He turned to blast Nog for shutting down the virtual reality game before his time was up. He found himself staring at the slightly lopsided but very stern face of the Deep Space Nine’s chief security officer. “Odo!”
“Classes start in five minutes, Mr. Sisko,” Odo said dryly. “The IQ/Aptitudes are scheduled for today, are they not?”
“Yeah.” Jake’s high spirits fell.
“Then I suggest you get moving. You, too, Tena Lin.”
“Right.” Jake picked up his data padd, then noticed that Nog and Rotor had conveniently disappeared. He frowned, wondering why. Odo couldn’t force them to go to school. Nog’s father, Rom, didn’t want him to go at all, so Nog only went when he felt like it. Rotor, who looked like a giant cobra with two stubby legs, was just visiting Deep Space Nine. His father was the captain of a Selay merchant ship that had put into the station for repairs.
But being Commander Benjamin Sisko’s son, Jake not only had to attend, he was expected to do well.
“What seems to be the problem here?” Bokat, the Ferengi proprietor of the Games Bazaar, sauntered down the center aisle, addressing his question to Odo.
Tena Lin stomped out the door, but Jake hung back. The constable was not happy about having another Ferengi business on the Promenade, and Bokat could not afford to antagonize him. The new arcade had opened several days before and offered a variety of games not available at Galactic Adventures, which featured holographic simulations. Bokat’s inventory included replicas of historical games Jake found much more challenging. Primitive virtual reality, twentieth-century pinball, flat-screen action-adventures, and Target-Ball required physical dexterity and sharp reflexes as well as quick thinking. The carnival atmosphere of clashing sounds and flashing lights made the Games Bazaar the perfect place to get away from everyday problems.
“No problem—yet,” Odo said curtly. “But if I’m forced to play truant officer very often, you’ll have a big problem. Me.”
Bokat shrugged. “Policing the clientele is not my responsibility.”
“Galactic Adventures does not allow children to play before or during school hours.” Odo scowled and leaned toward the Ferengi. “You might want to consider a similar policy.”
“Sounds like bad business to me.” Bokat shook his head, then met Odo’s stare. “Every credit counts.”
“There won’t be any credits if you lose your license.” Odo turned, saw Jake, and stormed forward. “School! Now!”
As Jake bolted for the door, he glanced back. Nog and Rotor were huddled under an electronic dartboard, pointing at him and laughing. Bokat was staring at him, too, but there was no hint of humor in the Ferengi’s expression. Spooked by Bokat’s intense interest, Jake raced out after Tena Lin.
Just before they reached the classroom, Jake grabbed Lin’s sleeve and brought her to a halt. “Lin, wait a minute.”
The Bajoran girl whirled on him angrily. “What is it?”
“Are you mad at me for winning Dogfight?” Jake asked. Tena Lin reminded him of the fiery Major Kira Nerys, his father’s second-in-command. Both Bajorans were always ready for a fight.
“You always win that, Jake, but I can beat you on Dragon Keep. I scored over fifty-six thousand points yesterday. Set the all-time record and got a free game, too.”
Lin’s attitude bothered Jake. A little competitive spirit added spice to the contests, but she had become so serious about beating him, playing wasn’t as much fun anymore.
“You won’t get a chance to try, if Odo closes the Games Bazaar.”
“Why would he do that?” Lin asked, suddenly worried.
“Bokat wasn’t exactly cooperative.” Engaging in shady business schemes didn’t bother the Ferengi—as long as they didn’t get caught. Odo always caught Nog’s uncle, Quark, but it was a constant battle of wits that tried the shapeshifter’s patience.
“Yeah—so?”
“So he’ll use any excuse to shut Bokat down. No Ferengi will deliberately turn away paying customers, so we have to do it for him.” Jake realized Lin didn’t understand and explained, “I’m not going in there before school anymore.”
Lin fixed him with a determined green-eyed gaze.
“There’s no law against playing before school … as long as we’re not late. Do what you want, Jake, but I need all the practice I can get.”
“They’re just games, Lin!”
Lin waved him off and darted through the door.
Jake sighed. They each excelled at one type of game or another, and all four were evenly matched on the old, flat-screen action-adventures. They had won several free games recently. Curiously, Bokat had not been upset about losing the additional credits. He had seemed pleased, which didn’t make sense, Jake realized uneasily. No self-respecting Ferengi liked losing money.
The bell sounded, and Jake forgot about the Games Bazaar as he trudged to his seat. He had more serious problems. His teacher, Keiko O’Brien, had arranged a conference with his father that afternoon. His Earth history term paper was overdue, and the IQ/Aptitude tests would probably show he had the intelligence of an Andorian rock-slug and wasn’t suited for anything more exciting than hauling space trash.
CHAPTER 2
Jake was the last student to take the IQ/Aptitude test. However, the evaluation procedure was actually fun—more like a game than a test. Once he started, he didn’t mind having to stay after everyone else had been dismissed.
A snug-fitting black helmet covered his eyes and ears so no external sight or sound could distract him. There was a prickly sensation on his scalp where the electrodes made contact, but it was easily ignored. He didn’t have to write anything down or think about his answers. Images ranging from written questions to visual, situational problems flashed on the screen covering his eyes, and the device registered his responses. Observers could watch on an auxiliary screen connected to the helmet.
Jake did not know how long the test had been running. He just dealt with each new problem as it was presented.
He stood in a corridor before an open inner-airlock hatch. He heard the hiss a second before the outer hatch blew out and mentally slammed his hand on the seal-control. The inner door closed before sudden decompression sucked him into space.
Who invented duotronic computer technology? When?
Dr. Richard Daystrom in 2243. Easy. Jake thought.
How are you feeling?
Great.
Instantly the view shifted to show perfectly spaced, crisscrossing lines in space. Identify.
A Tholian Web.
Then Jake was standing in a cargo bay with red-alert klaxons blaring. The com-panel showed that the inertial dampeners and all backup systems would fail. The ship could not brake. Result?
Squashed against the bulkhead by the ship’s forward velocity. It was not a funny situation, but the mental picture of being shot across the hold and flattened against the wall made Jake smile.
47.90 is the atomic weight of…?
Titanium.
The screen darkened and the words Test Over blinked. Jak
e exhaled, relieved and exhausted, yet feeling oddly thrilled, too.
“Excellent, Jake!” Keiko removed the helmet and set it aside. “You scored an 857.”
“Is that good?” Jake squinted as his eyes adjusted to standard station light.
“Very good,” said a familiar deep voice.
“Dad!” Jake gasped. His father had watched the whole test.
Benjamin Sisko watched Jake now. “In fact, this test proves something we’ve suspected all along, Jake. You’re extremely bright, and you’re not working up to your potential or abilities.”
Jake didn’t say anything. He couldn’t argue results arrived at through Federation technology. He had been betrayed by his own brain, and knowing he was much smarter than an Andorian rock-slug didn’t help. Now his father would expect even more of him.
“I wouldn’t worry too much, Commander Sisko,” Keiko said. “Jake just needs time to find his own niche. When he discovers a subject that really interests him, he’ll apply himself.”
“Perhaps, but I don’t want him to lose too much ground while we’re waiting. If he spent half as much time working as he does playing arcade games, that overdue term paper might be finished.” Sisko turned back to Jake. “Don’t you agree?”
“Yeah.” Jake sighed. He knew what was coming next.
“Well, since you can’t seem to organize your time and set your priorities properly, I will. No more game playing until that paper is finished—correctly—and turned in.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” Commander Sisko paused to grip Jake’s shoulder on his way out the door. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
Keiko’s words of praise fell on deaf ears as Jake left the school. Despondent, he shuffled toward the nearest crossover bridge connecting the Promenade to the Habitat Ring. He was in no hurry to get home and decided to walk instead of riding the turbolift.
At least he wouldn’t have to explain being grounded to his friends until tomorrow. They were all at the Games Bazaar having fun, while he was stuck writing a paper on a bunch of crazy knights who had fought a stupid religious war on Earth over a thousand years ago. Boring.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Young Adult Books #5: Arcade Page 1